Remember the days that you would salivate over a website intro animation (created in Flash) that would dramatically introduce your brand on the homepage website. This was called a SPLASH page, because it caused a SPLASHHHHH!!! Soon people got tired of the SPLASH and wanted to go straight to your site with a SKIP INTRO button. Today the splash (AKA Flash) is DEAD.
Many factors go into why Flash is not the optimal chose to built your site in. Most importantly, you won’t see your site on Ipad if its in flash. Why? Well Steve Jobs before he pass decided that neither the Ipad or the Iphone would support Flash. He outlines his reasoning in the Apple blog. But mainly says:
“the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards – all areas where Flash falls short”
Many online companies listen to him and according to binvisions.com, 34% of the 100 most popular websites left Flash. Where did they go towards? HTML5
Even Adobe, the creator of Flash, left flash. They stated “Developing the Flash Player for mobile browsers has proven to require much more resources than we anticipated” because it required partnerships with OS developers, mobile hardware manufacturers and component manufacturers.
So what now? Many of the things that have been done via Flash in the past, will increasingly be done via HTML5 and CSS3. As great as HTML5 and CSS3 are, they still don’t provide 100% interactivity and animation that Flash provided … but times are different. Today the SPLASH intro is not as important as your sites search-ability. A lengthy dramatic animated intro does not help you when your competitor site is always found in the top 10 search results above you when your audience searches for a topic or product you offer. Also Flash intros and transition animations don’t work for todays impatient audience.
In Steve Jobs words, in order to “focus more on creating great tools for the future, and less on leaving the past (flash) behind”, the following are factors that should be taken into consideration in a post-flash world:
1. Searchability. Your site should be built with a database that allows Google, Yahoo and Bing to categorize all your content and make your product/services easy to find in search engines.
2. Mobile. The whole world is mobile… USA is just catching up. Either making your current site “light” with the graphics and content or creating a separate mobile site is the best way to catch up with the global mobile revolution.
3. Flexibility. Yes as soon as you update, revise or improve your site, it will be “old”. Believe me I don’t enjoy the quick pace that technology excels at but the truth is online technology is “open source.” That means each new code/language that pops up online is open for anyone to study and improve. This is the true cause for such frequent technological updates to occur.
As we mourn Flash we must remember technology is in the business of making better online experiences for all. So as we say bye bye to Flash we must keep it moving with HTML5 and CSS3.